Plastic oil pan!?!?!

[relentless1]

Is it Just me or did anyone elses truck come with a pos plastic oil pan? What the heck is up with that nonsense.

[dalton1]

nothing wrong with a plastic oil pan, wont rust or corrode like mine.

[harley1rocker]

heck id rather have a plastic oil pan,like he said,no rust no corrsion,although i would not go in the woods with it.were would i look for a plastic oil pan? i tow,my rig never hits the dirt,all pavment,all the time,so the plastic oil pan would work for me

[FordGuy100]

Plastic oil pan? Well, I guess it wont corrode, but dont try going over any large rocks without help....

[oldtimer550]

The modern plastics are as strong or stronger than the tinfoil pans. I wouldn't even give it a second thought. IMO, it's a smart move. The damn fuel tanks should be plastic. My 2000 550 diesel's tank is rusted through in 4 places. The oil pan is tender too.

[FordGuy100]

I wonder how well the oil pan is letting the oil cool. Obviously thats not its purpose, it has an oil cooler to do so, an no oil pan is made as the major cooler. But I've read two posts with fairly high engine oil temps. Wonder if the plastic oil pans hold on to heat more so than steel pans.

Like I said I know they arent meant for towing, but I'm sure they cool a little bit.

Just a thought.

[Lead Foot]

Aluminum would be best IMHO

All the Big diesels we have in the Wood yard have aluminum pans...

but Think about it if you got as hole you could fix it with Plastic steel,we have this were i work and its some tuff stuff....

kinda like JB weld, only for plastic

[jethro]

plastics are really strong now i see no problem with that. my intake manifold on my ranger is plastic it should not warp like steel nor rust

[jacob678]

Yeah I noticed the plastic oil pan but the tranny has a metal one. Weird, I know the new plastics are in most cases stronger then the thin metal ones. Cooling however I think with plastic would be inferior to aluminum or metal. Why metal on the tranny and plastic for the oil pan?

[powerhoghp]

Originally Posted by jethro

plastics are really strong now i see no problem with that. my intake manifold on my ranger is plastic it should not warp like steel nor rust

True.... BUT they have a tendency to not seal right and blow apart if you try forced induction....

As for the plastic oil pan, plastic is more insulating than metal... Even though it is probably very strong, I wouldn't want to put one on a diesel simply from the amount of heat. Hopefully the engineers thought of this. I don't think it would stand up to rocks very well though since metal will dent before it punctures instead of fracture.